They got gifts for both my mom and myself which was really sweet. Firstly, I got this fascinating new Tea Tumbler from Starbucks. Kyle said, as he was handing it to me, that it really had nothing at all to do with D.C. but they wanted me to have it anyway. It's honestly really neat. When filled with tea (or another hot beverage) a design appears on the exterior...and...the interior is coated with a certain kind of porous clay from China that absorbs the flavor and aroma of whatever you put in it. (For that reason you're supposed to use it for either coffee or tea, not both. Also, I think I might need to pick my favorite flavor of tea and just stick to that. At the moment, that would be Teavana's Samurai Chai Mate...so I think I'll go with that once I'm back in Indy this coming week.)
Thoroughly interested in my new tumbler, I was reading the card that came with it...researching...planning which tea flavor would receive the honor of being the exclusive tea for that cup, then Kyle reprimanded me for focusing on the tumbler when I had something else to focus on. I wasn't aware that I had another gift, but I did, and the story behind it touched me to the core.
Once I put the tumbler on the coffee table, Kyle pulled a book out of one of their bags from D.C. and handed it to me. The first two words on the cover were George and Washington so I was a little apprehensive...history is not my thing...AT ALL. My mom loves historical biographies, and maybe someday I would enjoy them, but I'm still jaded from primary school social studies. Being the strong person that I am though, I pushed through the pain of this being a potential history book and read further. Upon doing so, I found that this was hardly a history book, but a collection of Letter's written by George Washington's adopted daughter, Eleanor Parke Custis, to her best friend, Elizabeth Bordley Gibson. The letters span from 1794-1851.
So I was pretty excited about this to begin with...I opened it to read some bits and pieces but was told to wait as there was a story behind the gift. Kyle and my dad bought me this book, George Washington's Beautiful Nelly: The Letters of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1794-1851, after seeing an actress somewhere in D.C. (in some important building, I'm sure) portraying Eleanor. They spoke to the actress, who said that she had used this book as research for building her character. They thought knew that I would be really interested in this...and they were right. They got me the book thinking that maybe I could turn it into a one woman show. I was so touched that I seriously almost started crying. I am so beyond blessed to have such a supportive family that is emotionally and intellectually (not to mention monetarily) invested in my career.
After we talked about that prospect for a while, my dad added on this invaluable piece of information:
"Plus, we figured you could play her because she had hair similar to yours."
"Like curls?" I asked.
"Yeah, and color, too" my dad responded. When I asked if she had red hair or my natural hair color, my dad, without even pausing for one moment, answered "both."
"Wow," I said, Kyle and I smirking at each other, "that's some hair!"
We laughed and went on with the evening...I must say that I'm really looking forward to reading these letters and seeing what comes from them. Surely something thrilling...I mean...two-tone hair...in the 18th and 19th centuries?! LEGIT!
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